Requesting Maternity Leave
by CrayonClown
Summary: Brennan talks to Cam, who is unaware of the pregnancy, about taking maternity leave. Her social skills leave some comical misunderstandings until Cam and Jack start questioning Brennan, who isn't as forthcoming in her answers as she thinks she's being.


**Major spoiler alert for the Season 6 finale.**

**First order of business: Gah! Squeeeeee! -passes out-**

**Someone pass me some chocolate to revive me please!  
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**Stephan Nathan has said that when Season 7 comes we will see a time jump and everyone will know about the pregnancy, so I've had this idea in my head since last night. The fact that I woke up this morning and could remember every detail that I wanted to incorporate into it dictated that I must just go ahead and write it even though I've got four concurrently neglected fics already waiting to be updated. **

**One-shot; Brennan talks to Cam about taking maternity leave, but her social skills leave some comical misunderstandings until Cam and Hodgins start questioning Brennan who isn't very forthcoming in her answers as she thinks she's being.  
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**I've got a 7,000+ word chapter almost ready for Jelly Bean. I just have a few things to work out before I post that one, but it'll probably be up sometime tomorrow.**

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><p><strong>Requesting Maternity Leave<strong>

Brennan knew she was going to have a few tough choices to make coming up soon. It's been a little over two months since the day her best friend gave birth to her baby and she'd asked Booth why they didn't seem more apprehensive about everything that had been changing in their lives. Booth had told her that having a healthy baby was the happiest day of their lives and change didn't matter as much as the happiness and health of their new family. She made sure he really believed what he was telling her before she told Booth that they were expecting after his beautiful little speech about having a baby being such a wonderful thing.

Brennan was starting to show a little bit and it was happening pretty quickly. She still hadn't told their friends and coworkers because Booth had insisted they at least wait until after the first trimester, which she'd just come to the end of. By waiting, the worry about telling anyone if something had happened, causing the viability of the pregnancy to be compromised was non-existent. They didn't want to tell people they were pregnant and then make every one suffer the grief of a loss, should it have happened.

The only person who knew anything about the change in status between them was Angela. She was the first one that Brennan turned to after the heartbreakingly wonderful night she'd spent in Booth's arms. Brennan also wanted to make sure to give Angela the same courtesy she'd been given by allowing Angela to be the first one they told about the pregnancy. They'd done that a few days ago. While there was much squeeing and jumping up and down, Angela had been able to keep it a secret because she was taking an extended maternity leave. She had tried to go back to work a few times, but just had not been ready to leave her baby to do so. Having not had constant contact with others, it was fairly easy for her to keep the secret. The only one she had to work hard not to tell was Jack, but all day while he was gone to work, she would talk to Michael about his future playmate and probable girlfriend and that placated her for the time being. They'd promised her that it wouldn't be long before she could talk about it openly.

Brennan didn't want to get everyone together to make a big deal out of an announcement as Angela had tried to do; she didn't want that kind of attention and she didn't want it to turn into a circus either. She told Booth she would be happy telling a few key people along with their immediate family members, and then letting the rest of the world figure it out on their own.

Pretty high up on their list of key people were their bosses. Booth was telling Cullen right now, or he was supposed to be anyway. She knew he was nervous about what would happen to their partnership, but she knew she could count on him to do what was necessary.

Brennan was starting to get chilled feet. She had been working on the platform alongside Cam for the better part of two hours. Her feet were killing her and the body in front of them still had some very fleshy parts that were making Brennan a little queasy, but she'd managed to keep that at bay as long as she focused on using what she could see of the mangled bones to help identify the murder weapon.

It was another half hour later when she'd finally gotten the courage. Hodgins was up there collecting samples from the body now as well. She wasn't sure why, but having Hodgins up there on the platform with them now, gave her a little bit of extra confidence in what she was needing to do.

"Cam?" She spoke up, her tone and less formal address gave away that this was not something about the case.

"Do you need something?" She asked.

"I would like to talk to you about maternity leave."

Hodgins stopped working and looked up quickly to the two of them with wide eyes.

They were both remembering when Brennan told everyone she was going to have a baby without there actually having been a baby first, and Cam was thinking this was a similar sort of situation.

"You mean, for when you decide to have a baby?"

"Is there another reason for requesting maternity leave that I don't know about?" Brennan furrowed her brow, certain that it should have been glaringly obvious.

"Noooo, maternity leave is… yeah, babies. I'm just curious, when are you planning to start trying for a baby? Are you still planning to use a donor?"

"A donation has been already been made." She looked almost shy, blushing as she said it.

_That's a peculiar thing to say._ Jack and Cam both thought.

Jack narrowed his eyes at Brennan; she was nervous. Temperance Brennan doesn't get like this. She also looked frustrated over something. That usually happened only when people weren't fully comprehending or completely misunderstanding her words, which while that happened a lot, given their current topic he couldn't figure out why there would be a misunderstanding, unless…

"Oh my God!" He threw the tweezers he was using down next to the body and snapped off his gloves quickly. He walked over to Brennan and looked at her affectionately and curiously.

"Doctor B? Are you trying to tell us you're pregnant?"

"Yes. I thought that requesting maternity leave would have been—"

She was cut off as he pulled her into a hug. "Congratulations," he told her as he pulled out of the hug. "Parenthood is a wonderful thing."

Cam still stood frozen over on the other side of the lab table. She knew her mind didn't work as quickly as her co-workers' but she still could believe she missed what was being implied with the inquiry about maternity leave.

"So, you don't want to just _talk_ about maternity leave, you want to _request_ it?" She just had to confirm for herself.

"Yes. I just completed my first trimester. I'm due in late January or early February."

"Congratulations, Doctor Brennan." She nodded and tried to make her voice steady.

"Thank you."

"Is there, uh… you said there had already been a donor. So you used the sperm bank?" Cam asked.

"No, the baby was conceived through sexual intercourse."

"A direct deposit, then?"

Brennan scrunched her face up. "I'm not a bank."

"No, no… I just meant… Nevermind. Was this planned?"

"It was not planned. I had not had a sexual relationship for over two years, so I had gone off of birth control awhile ago as I didn't see the need for it. It was irresponsible of us to be so careless, but we're happy that we are expecting."

"We? So there's a father?"

"Of course. That's… how it works." Brennan said, starting to seriously question her boss' medical license. "Anyway, I'm going to need to make preparations for the time I will be away. And also, it is unlikely that I will be able to go out into the field with Booth now."

Both Cam and Jack were now sweating.

_Booth._

_Does he know?_

"Is Booth aware of this… uh, change?"

"Yes, he's known for a while. He was the first to know, actually. He's very happy for us."

"He was the first to know?" Cam asked. She was certain that her lion-hearted friend had to be crushed beyond words at the news that the woman he was in love with was expecting someone else's baby.

"Yes."

Jack spoke up again, "Does Angie know?"

"Yes, we told her a few days ago."

"And she kept this from me? I don't know how you got her to keep that secret, but wow… I'm _really_ happy for you, Doctor B."

"That's the impression I got from the enthusiastic hug."

"Doctor Brennan, Angela is your best friend, why did you only tell her a few days ago when you apparently told Booth a couple months ago?" Cam asked.

Cam was now sensing something was amiss here, and she was proud of herself for fishing it out before Jack.

"Booth is my best friend too, besides…" she shrugged, "I thought it was _customary_ for the father of the baby to be one of the first ones to know."

Both pairs of wide eyes were on her.

The pair of blue eyes were practically buzzing with excitement and slightly filled with unshed tears. "B—Booth's the father?" He asked. It was a dumb question, he knew; she'd just said as much.

"Isn't that what I just said?" She furrowed her brow.

The pair of dark brown eyes looking at her with wonder lit up in what looked like relief. Brennan didn't know that it was because Cam had been hurting for her good friend when there was no reason to. She hadn't seen this coming at all. She knew that Booth and Brennan had re-established their strong friendship since Hannah's departure, but she hadn't even noticed anything different in how the two of them treated each other.

All Brennan saw was genuine happiness in both of their eyes.

"You slept with Booth?" Cam clarified. One couldn't be too careful about these things when the well-being of a good friend was at stake. She wasn't entirely sure she hadn't passed out and was dreaming upon hearing Brennan was actually pregnant instead of intending to _get_ pregnant.

"Yes, we've done so many times since I told him I was expecting."

"Just since then?"

"Yes, and before that was only one time?"

"Yes. I said before that neither of us had been prepared for intercourse and it was irresponsible to continue without protection, but we just… it was too good to stop, especially after the day we'd had."

Hodgins did some quick calculations in his head. "Are you serious? That day!"

"Yes."

"What day?" Cam asked, not completely caught up.

"Your first time with Booth was the day that we lost…"

"Yes. That night. Booth keeps saying that even his sperm were in sniper mode that day." She rolled her eyes at the thought.

Hodgins laughed at the candor of the conversation. "Sniper-sperm?"

"Oh my God." Cam gasped when she caught on. "So you two are _together,_ together now?"

"Why would we continue to have intercourse if we weren't?"

"Well, there's…"

"No, Booth and I would never do _that_. No-strings relationships never work or we would have done it a long time ago."

_You're telling me!_ Cam thought. She knew that the second time that she and Booth had been together after she'd arrived in DC was exactly that. A friends-with-benefits no-strings-attached relationship. She knew to whom he was attached to, and it wasn't herself. Cam was genuinely happy that things were finally working out for her oldest friend.

"And actually," Brennan continued, "I'd call having a baby together a… tungsten carbide chain. Nothing is going to break the bond that we've forever forged. We didn't discuss being a couple our first time, but we both just _knew_ that there wouldn't be any going back. The intensity of… everything that first time was so big and so powerful that while we spent time together and enjoyed each other's company after that, which isn't any different from what we had been doing, we just didn't do it again until after I'd told him about the baby. We both needed time to comprehend and appreciate the change."

Brennan was glad that all of her interns were taking exams today, giving her the freedom to talk openly to their close friends.

"So this is really happening, the two of you?"

Cam didn't hear the scanner go off behind her as someone came up the steps, but she saw Brennan's change in expression upon seeing who she knew was now behind her.

"Oh, this is real, Camille."

Booth walked around the lab table and decomposing body to his love. He wrapped his arms around her waist, bringing her closer to his warm body. "I take it you told her?" he nuzzled his face into her neck.

"Well, if I didn't the fact that you're now practically groping me with your hands on my ass might be a clue."

His eyes shot open wide and he released her holding his arms out wide from her body.

He didn't even realize what he was doing to her right in front of their friends.

"Relax, Seeley. Hugging your pregnant girlfriend in public is not a sin, unless you start to give us an idea of what your bedroom life is like. Then, I'll have to ask that you take it elsewhere, and I don't mean to her office."

"Very funny, and don't call me Seeley."

"Don't call me Camille."

"Did you talk to Cullen," Brennan asked.

"Yes."

"Well, what did he say?"

"I'm suspended for fraternization with my partner, they took my badge and my gun, they're splitting us up, and I owe Cullen two hundred dollars so that his wife isn't pissed over his loss in the bet."

"What? That's not true!" She slapped him on the arm. "Be serious. This is serious."

"No, you're right. The only thing that was true is the part about owing him two hundred bucks. Everything else is fine. They're monitoring the effectiveness of our partnership, blah blah blah, we have to start seeing Sweets again, blah blah blah, I love y—"

She pulled him to her in a grateful kiss. She was glad that they weren't being split up. She was even glad to be back in therapy with Sweets. She'd really missed teaming up with Booth to mess with the kid more than she cared to admit.

Despite having a rather lengthy conversation concerning what they were seeing, Cam and Jack still couldn't believe it, and everyone else in the lab couldn't believe their eyes either.

Claps and cheering ensued around the platform.

A deep pink came over both of them as they pulled their lips away from each other. Staying in each other's arms, Brennan tucked her face into his chest in slight embarrassment, but they both started to laugh.

"Ready for lunch, Bones? We can go get some Thai or maybe try that Potbelly Sandwich Shop on Pennsylvania or we haven't been to Sichuan Pavilion in a while or there's that Rasoi Indian Kitchen right next to it."

"Booth, shut up about food. The very thought makes me want to vomit. I've been fighting nausea a lot lately, especially with this still decidedly fleshy body. Can we just go home for a bit…away from the bodies and with no food?"

"Sure, but you're going to eat something. Even if it's just toast and ginger ale."

"No."

"Crackers?"

"No."

"Bones…"

"I'm not going to become emaciated from one missed meal. I had breakfast and would like to keep it down; thank you very much. If I eat anything I will lose breakfast _and_ lunch."

"You need to eat. Just something small."

"If I vomit up breakfast and lunch, there is a high chance that I will not be able to tolerate eating dinner either. That's the exact opposite of what you want."

"Fine, but if you don't eat dinner tonight, I'm taking you to the doctor and they can give you a feeding tube."

"I won't need a feeding tube! You're ridiculous."

They walked off of the platform as they bickered leaving behind two very amused and elated coworkers and close friends. They headed into Brennan's office and emerged a few seconds later and they walked out together. Booth took her back to his apartment where they had been staying together since she'd told him of her pregnancy.

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><p><strong>XdcfgvhBJrexdtcfvGBH! SQUEEEEEEE!<strong>

**I'm so excited for what this will bring to the show in Season 7.**

**XOXO,  
>CrayonClown<strong>


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